AAMC Chem/Phys Analyses

Practice Test 3: 56 / 59 (132)

1) Easy Sn2 attack
2) If there is a higher percentage of a certain compound at equilibrium (“thermodynamic mixture”), then it is
more thermodynamically stable.
3) Dehydration reaction
4) Organic chem
5) C = Q / V, Energy = ½ QV
6) Simple Doppler Effect
7) P = Fv
8) Incorrect. “Force declines linearly with speed, what would Velocity vs time graph look like?” I was not sure
of this question. But now I realize it’s a mistake. If deceleration (force) were constant, then velocity would
decrease in a linear fashion. But if deceleration decreases with velocity, then the rate of decrease of velocity
would decrease. You definitely did not feel good about this question—this kinematics/velocity stuff is so basic
that it has to be tricky—watch out for these types of questions.
9) The relative thermodynamic stability of isomeric organic compounds is based on the amount of heat
produced when the compounds are combusted: less heat = greater stability
10) Incorrect. You were not sure of the reasoning behind this question—think harder. Obviously all of the other
labelled hydrogens would have be lost in reactions. You want the hydrogen that is always gonna be on the
guanine—this is the only way to keep track of it. If you are not sure of the reasoning, keep thinking.
11) PV = nRT, easy money
12) HCO3- is a base because Kb > Ka
 As a general note, let’s say H2CO3 has a Ka of 4.3 x 10-7. It’s Kw / Ka = Kb of it’s conjugate base HCO3-,
not H2CO3.
13) Limiting reagent
14) Ea = activated complex – energy of the reactants
15) Electron configuration
16) Redox reaction identification
17) Celsius to Kelvin
18) Period of a time-varying signal is always the shortest repetition time.
19) E = hf, v = f
20) Electric field is uniform if the field lines are equally spaced at both electrodes and between them
21) Unit conversion
22) Reading comprehension, oxidoreductase
23) Stoichiometry
24) An oxidizing agent like FAD is needed to proceed. FAD is a cofactor oxidant.
25) Steroid hormone structure
26) Henderson Hasselbach equation. Note: Monosodium phosphate = NaH2PO4
27) Peptide bonds are formed after dehydration
28) Incorrect. I was also not sure of the reasoning behind this question.
 Related info: Steady state (dynamic equilibrium) = system that remains constant over time, has a higher
level of energy than its surroundings. Requires continual work
 Chemical equilibrium – stable over time, but no energy or work is required to maintain that condition;
no free energy or work (like pH of blood or other natural systems)
 E + S <--> ES  E + P
 Steady State Assumption: method used to derive a rate law—based on the assumption that one
intermediate in the reaction is consumed as quickly as it is generated. Its concentration remains the same
in a duration of the reaction
 
 Kcat = Vmax / [E]T
 Catalytic Efficiency = Kcat / KM
29) Excellent reasoning. Reading comprehension.
30) Acetylation = adding RC=O. Hydroxylamine = NHOH
31) Reading graphs—Relative rates = comparing rate constants. Twice the rate constant = twice the speed.
32) Identification of O2 as final electron acceptor
33) Amino acids
34) pH
35) An aromatic amine is an amino group attached to an a benzene ring, not a nitrogen that is incorporated
within the benzene ring.
36) Amino acids
37) An atom must be a Lewis base to coordinate calcium ions, and oxygenis the only Lewis basic atom present
in the side chains or backbones of the listed amino acids.
38) The heme cofactor is a porphyrin. The basic unit of porphyrin is the pyrrole ring, a five-sided heterocycle
containing one nitrogen atom.
39) resistivity (m) = inverse of conductivity
40) Transferase – transfer of a methyl group to cytosine. Oxidoreductase – hydroxylation of methyl group
41) G = -RTlnK
42) pK is the pH at which the fraction of folded DNA is 0.5. Cooperativity is measured as the slope of the
unfolding transition. Higher slope magnitude = higher cooperativity.
43) Reasoning
44) Passage information
45) Proteins are positively charged when pH is less than pI
46) Polysaccharide of glucose has numerous hydroxyl groups that can hydrogen bond to the polar side chains
that are typically exposed on a protein surface
47) Fluorine has the highest first ionization energy
48) Graph reading—note the axes
49) Frequency is not affected by medium through which it propagates
50) Volume flow rate calculation
51) v = f
52) Av = Av
53) Ksp
54) Alkaline earth metals = 2nd period
55) G = -RTlnK
56) Le chateliers
57) Octahedral geometry
58) P = pgh
59) Carbon is a second period element that is a covalent network solid (graphite) in its standard state

For Chem-Phys, you should be 100% sure of every single answer.

Practice Test 2: 57 / 59 (132)

1) Chymotrypsin cuts on the carboxyl side
2) Simple math, a little tricky. If higher frequency light is absorbed than emitted, that means that energy was
converted to other forms
3) Simple unit conversion
4) Counting sp2 carbons
5) Recognizing amino acids
6) Passage comprehension, figure reading
7) Table reading
8) Kcat = Vmax / [Et]
9) Absorption of ultraviolet light by organic molecules always results in electronic excitation. Bond breaking
can subsequently result, as can ionization or bond vibration, but none of these processes are guaranteed from
the absorption of uv light
10) Incorrect. Separation and purification methods – clarification of this concept was needed. Silica gel is the
stationary phase, and it is polar. Mobile phase is benzene. Polar solutes will elute in longer time
11) A little unsure, but good. The half life of a radioactive material is defined as the time it takes for half of all
the radioactive nuclei to decay into their daughter nuclei, which may or may not be radioactive
12) Blindingly easy center of mass question
13) Passage comprehension
14) Amino acid recogniztion
15) Easy graph reading. Aromatic side chains absorb in the near UV region of the electromagnetic spectrum,
which has longer wavelengths, and hence lower energy, than peptide bonds. Because the energy of the photon
matches the energy gap between the ground and excited state, this implies that the aromatic side chain has more
closely spaced energy levels.
16) Extremely easy graph reading
17) Charge of a region of amino acid
18) Incorrect. Was unsure of this question. Now it is all too clear. The gamma phosphate (third phosphate out)
is what gets transferred by kinases. Your answer didn’t make sense at all. Think more. Ultimately a mistake—
think more.
19) Amino acid recognition
20) Amino acid recognition
21) Sigmoidal shape is indicative of cooperative processes
22) Graph reading – highest Tm = most stable
23) Basic Graph reading
24) Knowledge of reduction reactions
25) Venturi effect
26) GC has more hydrogen bonds than AT
27) Boiling point of a substance will give the best estimate of its relative vapor pressure
28) Storage lipids are triacylglycerols
29) Knowledge of cathode and anode
30) Le Chatelier’s principle
31) Knowledge of lewis base – electron pair donator
32) Catalyst increases amount of product per unit time
33) Passage comprehension – proton conductivity of SCY increases with increasing temperature
34) If the equilibrium constant for the reaction is very large (much greater than 1), this necessarily means that G
is negative and the reaction is spontaneous
35) Super easy passage comprehension
36) Coordinate covalent is the Lewis acid-base interaction between a metal cation and electron pair donor
37) Good reasoning. HCl will protonate ammonia and reduce the amount of it present. Le Chatelier’s
38) Coordination number – amount of molecules bound to the central metal ion
39) Nitrogen is a better lewis base than oxygen
40) Ca has a high second ionization energy
41) Mass percent of oxygen
42) Henderson hasselbalch
43) Ksp calculation, “x”
44) Blood flow, inflatable cuff. Inflatable cuff temporarily stops blood flow. Systolic pressure is determined
from the first sound of blood flow that an be heard once the pressure exerted by the inflatable cuff falls below
the pressure in the artery.
45) C = G
46) Movement of charged particles
47) Almost made a mistake. Remember that it is not possible to move protons in transferring charge – electrons
are moved
48) C-H has the smallest bond length because hydrogen has a much smaller atomic radius than second period
elements. Generally, the length of the bond between two atoms is approximately the sum of the covalent radii of
the two atoms.
49) Table based calculation
50) STP = 22.4 L/mol
51) C-C is least polar
52) Table calculation, simple mgh
53) ½ kx2
54) decibel
55) 1 / f = 1 / o + 1 / i. Diverging = SUV
56) Half life calculation
57) Battery-powered resistive circuit: Chemical to electric to thermal
58) Protein secondary structure – hydrogen bonds between backbone amide protons and carbonyl oxygens
59) 1 / Rt = 1 / R1 + 1 / R2

Section Bank Analysis: 81/100

Passage 1: Mass spectrometry, ionization, organic molecules, E field, c = f, power
1) Magnitude of electric field: E = V / d easy
2) Knowledge of organic molecules
Hydroquinone:

Even without this knowledge, you still made an educated guess at the answer and got it right
3) Reading comprehension
4) Basic table reading, c = f
5) Basic table reading, P x t = energy (J)
6) Reading Comprehension: Proteolytic Cleavage = hydrolysis

Passage 2: Lens equation, Bond dissociation enthalpy, photoelectric effect, work function, 1 / f = 1 / i + 1 / o
7) Reading comprehension: regular calorimetry cannot measure fast and localized heat transfer processes
all the other choices are ridiculous
8) Pretty tough. Passage comprehension, POE. All of the other choices are not right. You made an assumption
when you thought that Hnr was measured by the energy meter, not the oscillator, which was implied in the
passage.
9) You had to know what a benzene is
10) Table reading: Photon energy is directly proportional to the radiation frequency
11) Thin lens formula: 1 / f = 1 / i + 1 / o
12) Mistake: you have to subtract the work function, 3.4. Also remember electron-volts are a measure of work.
You just mindlessly made a calculation, without looking closer at what the question was asking for. you
were begging to get that question wrong.

Discrete:
13) tertiary alcohols are the most likely to undergo SN Basic knowledge
14) Extraction: the carboxylic acid and the unreactive starting material will be acidic, you need to quench them
with base, which will hydrolyze and extract both of them to the aqueous layer, leaving the neutral amide in the
ether layer.
New Knowledge: The organic layer also contains a solvent (CH2Cl2 or ether) that is insoluble in
water. So the organic layer= Compounds we're trying to separate + insoluble solvent. The
compounds we're trying to separate are insoluble because even though their functional groups may
have dipoles which make them polar, they usually have large R groups that are made of carbon, thus
making the whole thing insoluble in water and masking the solubility of the functional group itself.
You separate (extract) the compounds from the insoluble organic layer by making them
charged, i.e. adding acid/base to them to protonate/deprotonate the functional groups. Whether you
add acid or base, and the order in which you add each acid or base, will depend on the compounds
you have. Here's the rules we need to know (from chad): amines are extracted by HCl (amine gets
protonated), carboxylic acids are extracted by NaHCO3 or NaOH (carb acid gets deprotonated),
phenols are extracted by NaOH (phenol gets deprotonated). After you add each acid or base, you will
form a new aqueous layer that contains the compound you were trying to extract. The compound has
now become soluble in water because we added a charge to it (positive or negative). Each time you
form a new aqueous layer with a new compound, you can isolate it in a test tube.
If you have one product, like in this question, you just have to evaporate the ether.

15) V = IR. excellent interpretation of graph: maximum current = minimum resistance

Basic equation, but make it more complicated
16) Decibel:  = 10 log (I / I0) Basic equation, but make it more complicated
17) Tough. Question situation says Voltmeter is zero, which means that the voltage drop across each resistor is
equal (to the resistors in parallel, R1 = R, R2 = R3)
The voltage drop across R1 and R is the same. V = IR = I1R1.
Also, IR3 = I1R2. Set up ratios for I1 / I = R / R1 = R3 / R2, so R =
R1R3 / R2. You had the knowledge to solve this question. The
current flowing on the top is constant, the current flowing across
the bottom is constant (series rule / junction rule). The voltage
drop across the resistors in parallel are the same, because the
voltmeter says 0.

Passage 3: Lipids, emitted light/absorbed light, size-exclusion chromatography, pH

18) Classes of lipids. phosphatides - any of a class of compounds that are fatty acid esters of glycerol phosphate
with a nitrogen base linked to the phosphate group. Also, you did not know this, but POE.
Phosphonic acid: Pyrophosphates:

19) POE, passage comprehension

20) Hard/weird. Wrong interpretation. kind of ambiguous
 Compound 1: Kinetic because reaction occurred quickly and kinetic reactions are often irreversible (at low
temperatures).
Compound 2: Thermodynamic reactions tend to be more reversible aka can form new liposomes. It rearranged
to a mainly homogenous liposome profile which shows the rearranged products are the most stable.
21) Basic extrapolation of table results
22) Unit conversion
23) Good reasoning, passage comprehension / average of two concentrations

Discrete:
24) G = -RT ln K
25) Huge mistake. A d element will lose 4s electrons before 3d electrons.
26) simple unit conversion
27) POE. Cobalt is the most closely related to Fe as a transition metal and can support a square planar
coordination environments.
28) Kinases catalyze the transfer of phosphate groups from ATP to target proteins and are classified as
transferases.

Passage 4: kinetic parameters, colored, serial dilutions, Michaelis-Menten

29) more conjugation – more intensely colored
30) KM = concentration at half Vmax
31) knowledge of amino acid substitutions
32) Passage comprehension. Albumin is added to maintain homogeneity and prevent the enzyme from adhering
to walls
33) Easy. Ratio of kcat to KM is a measure of catalytic efficiency. Kcat = K2 = turnover number—the number of
substrate molecules each enzyme site converts to product per unit time. kcat = Vmax / [Et].
34) Unit conversion

Passage 5: Catalytic center, hydrolysis, amino acid substitutions, kinetic parameters, melting temperature
35) Passage comprehension Organic chemistry – deprotonation of reacting water will make it more nucleophilic
36) Design of research. This answer sounded right, and it should be what you stuck with. If it’s Design and
Execution of Research, then the answer choice cannot merely be right, it must “do” something.
37) Table reasoning
38) Knowledge of amino acids
39) Table interpretation. Catalytic turnover – kcat, substrate binding - KM
40) passage comprehension, nucleophilic attack of carbonyl group in peptide bond

Passage 6: Enzymes, affinity constant, amino acid substitutions, Titrations,

41) Passage comprehension: oligosaccharides are connected by glycoside bonds
42) Passage comprehension: G = H - TS
43) Amino acid knowledge, hydrogen bonding
44) Titrations: equivalence point is halfway up, 1:1 ratio, solution contained 100 nmol.
45) Passage comprehension / using their equation and graphs
46) Basic passage comprehension, competitive binding

Discrete:
47) induced fit model – active site of the enzyme changes shape upon substrate binding, and proper substrate
causes change that initiates catalysis
48) kcat = used to describe the rate-limiting step of catalysis under the saturating conditions of substrate
49) POE because you weren’t sure. Michaelis-Menten kinetics describes a hyperbolic dependence of V o on
substrate concentration.
50) Uncompetitive inhibitor: KM and Vmax decrease
51) Ok. There’s a couple things going on here—some distinctions that you didn’t know.
Histidine has a pKa of 6. At a pH of 7, it has no charge. This is why you got this Q wrong.
Anion-exchange columns bind to anionic peptides. The higher the negative charge, the higher the salt
concentration it would elute at.

Passage 7: Glycosidic bonds, nucleophile/electrophile, organic molecules, lineweaver-burke plot

52) Light emitted vs absorbed. Purple is complementary to yellow.
53) Passage comprehension. Nucleophile/electrophile
54) Passage comprehension, better leaving group
55) Finding KM on reciprocal plot – inverse of x intercept
56) Finding Vmax on reciprocal plot – inverse of y intercept
57) Mistake, but tricky. There was another 1:1 dilution you missed in the passage. Even so, you were confused
because you weren’t getting an exact answer—in this case, look harder in the passage for more info instead of
just picking something like an idiot.

Passage 8: Enzymes (methyltransferase), tagging, SDS PAGE, washing

58) SDS-Page conditions denature the protein and eliminate quaternary structure. Thus, a tetramer will become
4 monomers.
59) Know the structures of the nucleotide bases, and their numbering
60) Half life question. Easy money
61) I didn’t know. Histidine tagging is where you modify primary sequence by adding 6 or more histidines to
the end. Nickel column has an affinity to a histidine tag. Affinity chromatography is specific interactions
occurring between the column and target, such as antibody + antigen, or magnetic + iron. Ni 2+ will coordinate
with two molecules of histidine.
62) Passage comprehension. Read harder – your answer doesn’t make sense.
63) POE. Didn’t fully understand, but that’s fine.
Discrete Questions:
64) Non-reducing SDS Page will separate quaternary structure, but will not separate disulfide bonds.
65) One mole of NADH can reduce a mole of disulfide bonds.
66) Steroid vs peptide hormones solubility
67) Negative proteins bind to anion exchange columns; the larger the net negative charge, the more NaCl is
required for elution

Passage 9: Influenza, RNA, nucleotide bases, gel electrophoresis, thermal denaturation

68) Basic counting purines and pyrmidines
69) Reading gel electrophoresis; Native gel electrophoresis keeps shape
70) GC bonds are stronger than AT
71) Melting temperature – 50% of the molecules are denatured
72) Basic Graph reading
73) Unit conversion mistake. Unforgivable.

Passage 10: Amino acids, kinases, kinetic data

74) Amino acid structure
75) Reading table, catalytic efficiency – kcat / KM
76) Knowledge of molecules: Galactose is a six-carbon aldose
77) Interpretation of table
78) Tricky – ATP is lost with the conversion of phosphoenolpyruvate to pyruvate, but regained with the
conversion of pyruvate to lactate. Read the passage fully—if something’s bugging you, don’t’ just pick some
enticing answer.
79) Basic passage comprehension. Pyruvate is reduced to lactate, generating NAD+

Discrete Questions
80) Knowledge of the structure of biomolecules (nucleosides)
81) Drops in pH result in protonation of H-bond acceptors, leading to loss in base-pairing. Presence of positive
ions in solution (particularly Mg2+) leads to stabilization of the DNA fold via shielding of the repulsion
between phosphate groups within the DNA backbone.
82) Knowledge of nucleosides
83) Knowledge of amino acids
84) Knowledge of amino acids. Basic residues contribute to high pI.

Passage 11: Glycosidic bond, catalytic activity

85) Reducing sugar, structure of maltose. Hemiacetal end is reducing.
86) I didn’t know what specific activity was. Specific activity – activity of enzyme per milligram of total
protein. Measurement of enzyme purity in the mixture. Expressed in units of mol / min / mg. If you were
really on your game, you could have sensed that the protein mixture was not pure, and made the necessary
calculations by multiplying specific activity by total protein. They don’t expect you to know what specific
activity is—just to make an educated guess. You know enough science to know that your method was not
correct.
87) I would have went with H-bonding. Wikipedia says that it is a combination of two noncovalent interactions:
hydrogen bonding and ionic bonding. Like between COO- and NH3+. In this question, only one molecule was
charged. Salt-bridge interactions require both molecules to be charged.
88) Oh my god, a complete banal mistake. Confused phe and tyr
**89) Two answer choices seemed right. Read the passage. If deprotonated, Glu can no longer participate in
catalysis and protonate the substrate by acting as a Bronsted acid. The pKa of this side chain is significantly
higher in the enzyme active site than in solution. D is just a better answer.
90) pH. Good job not getting this question wrong.

Passage 12: Homodimers, transfer of phosphate, amino acids, Enzymatic Activity, Km

91) Reading of passage, basic nomenclature
92) SDS Page and Native Page. Native = non-reducing PAGE, non-reducing SDS, reducing SDS. SDS reducing
gets rid of disulfide bonds, gets rid of shape – thus, differences in gel will be due to only size, not shape. Native
Page – shape is preserved. More for qualitative purposes. Native Page might preserve quaternary structure:
NATIVE = ORIGINAL. Homodimers always result in one band.
93) POE. H-bonding
94) Good Passage comprehension. Table analysis
95) Lineweaver-Burk
96) Passage comprehension. “Glycerol binds first” – not random, but ordered mechanism. Ternary complex =
complex formed between two substrate molecules and an enzyme.
97) Disulfide bonds
98) POE. Denaturation / unfolding of proteins is a cooperative process, which is marked by sigmoidal curves.
99) catalytic efficiency is kcat / Km
100) Viscosity of blood question. Follow the reasoning the question stem—good.

Test 1 Chem/Phys: 57 / 59
11) Strength S of eye lens = inverse of focal length
19) 1 atm – 760 mmHg
31) Incorrect. Overthought this question. If something is mainly composed of C and H, it’s hydrophobic
33) Incorrect. Unbelievable mistake: sp2 vs sp3

Sample Test Chem/Phys: 53 / 59

7) Incorrect. Mistake. Ion size: sodium ions (cations) are bigger than chloride anions
10) Tollens test. Sucrose does not possess a hemiacetal functional group and will not undergo mutarotation, and
will not reduce Ag+. For reducing sugars, the reduced silver will show as a shiny mirror.
31) Incorrect. Mistake. The structure is more similar to oleic acid than glucose because of its COOH head,
linear figure, and hydrocarbon tail (it just happens to have an aromatic ring)
37) Incorrect. Mistake. Relationship between resistivity and temperature is linear. Graph reading.
41) Even if neither reactant is chiral, a chiral product may form.
46) Incorrect. Could have figured it out. Archimedes’ principle ratio.
48) Incorrect. Mistake. dAMP = deoxy
52) Incorrect. Mistake. Calculation E = hf

Chemistry Q-Pack: 110/120

11) Incorrect: acidity of salts. Na2CO3 is basic. (NaOH is a strong base, Na is unlikely to react. HCO3 is a weak
acid, CO3 is likely to react with water.
15) Incorrect. Organic chemistry, stabilizing from hydrogen bonding of conjugate base
27) Incorrect. Mistake, reading comprehension. Olestra is not metabolized because digestive enzymes are
blocked from cleavage sites. If a molecule is not metabolized, it can provide no energy and thus no calories
50) Incorrect. Same lack of knowledge as question 11.
59) Incorrect. Mistake. Reaction Kinetics. The slow step takes pretty much all the time in a reaction. That’s just
the nature of kinetics. This is why the rate equation is only dependent on the slow step.
68) Incorrect. Mistake. Fatty acids are partially soluble in both polar and nonpolar media. Their defining
characteristic is that they’re amphipathic!!!
85) Incorrect. Mistake. Always be careful about moles vs g. Equal grams do not equal Equal moles / amount!!
88) Ionization constant = Ka
98) Incorrect. Mistake. The lowest Ksp = the most insoluble. Meaning, the least amount of free aqueous ions in
solution.
108) Incorrect. Complete mistake. Octahedral is 6!!!
109) Incorrect. Mistake. Complete lack of reasoning, simple unit conversion

Physics Q-Pack: 117 / 120

28) Incorrect. When electrons are ejected from cathode to anode, current flows through a circuit. e-‘s ejected
from the cathode are replaced by electrons from battery to anode. Your answer was ridiculous because voltage
never increases, it pretty much is constant, no matter if electrons are going to it or away from it
52) Incorrect. Knowledge. Visible light travels more slowly though an optically dense medium than through a
vacuum because it is absorbed and re-emitted by the atomic structure of the optically dense medium.
89 Incorrect. Pure mistake. Acceleration causes linear increase in speed, and exponential increase in distance.

Ideal score: 119/120

To do:
What types of molecules do we have to know?
Review the goddamn nucleosides
Go through Mastering Organic Chemistry

Equations:
c = f
E=V/d
P x t = energy (J)
1/f=1/i+1/o
o is always positive, i = viewer’s side, f is positive for converging
 = 10 log (I / I0)
G = -RT ln K
kcat = Vmax / [Et]
G = H - TS

Common Mistakes
pH: low pH = more acidic = more H+ ions
the d orbital: 3d7, not 4s23d5
sp2 vs sp3
Confused phe and tyr